A.B. Korkor Medical Inc.
AngioExpand™ Catheter Introducer for Central Access

Company Overview
A.B. Korkor Medical has developed a unique small bore access device designed to simplify and improve safety when one needs percutanenous access to central veins and arteries.   The company is focused on developing fast, simple to use access products for central or peripheral access to the bloodstream.  The A.B. Korkor Medical team has patented the concept (US Pat. # 7,144,386 B2), designed the product for manufacture and obtained FDA 510K clearance to market this novel device.

Technology
Physician and nursing personnel that regularly perform Central Vein or Arterial access understand a skillfully placed initial entry point is critical to minimize bleeding and post-procedure recovery.  Using a large bore needle  (17-19 Ga.) significantly increases the risk of bleeding and possible arterial or vein wall damage, but using a small bore “Micro-introducer” (20-21 Ga.) means a multistep process must be used to expand the entry point sufficiently for access.

Fig 1. AngioExpand™ Catheter Introducer device

The AngioExpand™ catheter introducer resolves this tradeoff by providing a small bore needle for access (22 Ga.) and a patented expandable tip that will allow large gauge guide wires (up to 0.044”) directly through the introducer.  This improves safety and patient comfort.  The 22 Ga. needle reduces the cross sectional area of the wound by over 70% and the expandable tip reduces the number of steps it takes to successfully place a central line.  This single small bore introducer can be used to place small PICC lines as well as large multilumen dialysis catheters.  This one-size-fits-all capability can significantly reduce hospital inventories for these devices.

Device Description
The AngioExpand™ Catheter Introducer is supplied as a sterile device, intended for single use only. The device is composed of a catheter with a proximal female luer assembled over a specially designed 22 Ga. needle. Assembled into the hub of the needle is a filter (Fig. 1), which allows venting of air from the needle, and visualization of blood flashback when the device is inserted into the vessel.

Summary
The AngioExpand™ Catheter Introducer decreases the range of introducing needle sizes required during patient cannulation. The system is expected to reduce patient trauma and improve safety by significantly decreasing the size of the introducing needle required for the introduction of larger bore catheters and PICC lines.

For more information click here to go to the Contact Us page